Understanding reverse culture shock

Information from a young missionary that Jordan stayed with when Zach broke his leg.

Reverse culture shock, re-entry shock.
Is a syndrome, symptom very common to anyone that has spent time overseas.
Your kids have been in a different culture for enough time to struggle when they get back.
They have had a different diet, different people, different ideas, different social statuses, etc. surrounding them.

One area that you can help is to be willing to listen. They will want to share for hours but you will want to listen for minutes because it will be overwhelming information. Most people they meet will only give them 5 min to tell of months of adventure. This is very frustrating. They will feel people don’t care about what happened to them here and what they learned. They will struggle with seeing the wealth of the US in contrast to here and will constantly be saying things to compare it. They may start to be judgmental about the US’s mindset of so much when they saw people with so little here. They will miss much of this life and struggle at how to adapt back there, even though it is home. They will go through a cycle of excitement and then depression and then struggle at how to keep part of their experience alive while still adapting back to the US and living there. Some go to one extreme or the other, where they either embrace the US and try to leave Africa behind or vice versa. These are all normal feelings.

That’s the most important part, it’s normal to struggle. They will need their family to listen and to try and ask questions. They will need time to sit and remember their time here and maybe make a video or album. It may hit a few weeks down the road or it may happen a bit sooner.

There is a lot more to explain but that is the basis. Hope that helps.